Global crisis 'due to age-old failings'
Lloyd Ashton
| 29 Sep 2008
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Greed, idolatry, social injustice: the root causes behind the global financial crisis are little different from those identified by the prophet Isaiah before a national convulsion in 8th century BC Israel, according to one of New Zealand’s best-known churchmen.
In a sermon preached at Wellington Cathedral last night to mark the 10th anniversary of the Hikoi of Hope, retired Bishop Richard Randerson read quotations from Isaiah that have an uncanny resemblance to upheavals with the collapse of finance companies in New Zealand, and on Wall St.
Bishop Randerson, an advocate for social justice issues for many years and the first Anglican Social Responsibility Commissioner, quoted Isaiah’s remarks about a people who didn’t want to hear sobering news: “Do not prophesy to us what is right; speak to us smooth things, prophesy illusions…” (Isaiah 30: 10,11)
Then he read Isaiah’s description of the inevitable crash that followed: “like a break in a high wall, bulging out and about to collapse, whose crash comes suddenly, in an instant; the breaking is like that of a potter’s vessel that is smashed so ruthlessly that… not a shard is found…”
Bishop Randerson then linked the global financial meltdown and the questions posed by the 1998 Hikoi – which had been called to protest the increasing misery and desperation of those at the bottom of the pile – to the forthcoming election.
And he suggested principles that could guide people’s choices in the voting booth in November:
“First,” said Bishop Randerson, “we must ask: what’s happening to the poorest? A nation’s moral strength is measured by the how the poor are faring.”…
“Second… our first question should not be whom to vote for – but what we should vote for. We should examine policies on the basis of what they do for the well-being of all citizens…
“Third we should recognise that insufficient regulation of the market gives rise to naked greed and corruption…
“Finally, we should look out for the human greed that lurks in each one of us…”
Full text of Bishop Randerson’s sermon:
http://www.anglicantaonga.org.nz/Social-Justice/global
FOOTNOTE: Earlier this year the Social Justice Commission produced a Hikoi of Hope DVD that gives people an opportunity to re-engage with the 'five planks' of the Hikoi, and a chance to assess where we are at now, and where we should be focussing our energies. Go to justice.net.nz to find out more.
Lloyd Ashton is Media Officer to the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia
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